Lucky 13
by GingerPhoenixRising89
Summary: A quick look into the thirteenth birthday of Tony and Ziva's daughter; Tali


**Ziva:**

Years had passed since Ziva and Tali had survived the bomb attack on the farmhouse in Israel that Eli had left Ziva after he had died. It had been years since Ziva had learned that there had been a woman by the name of Sahar that had been out to get her, which had led Ziva to decided to send her daughter to live with Tony as Ziva fought like hell to get back to them. Along the way; Tali had grown up, Ziva came back from the dead and had helped find Phineas following the death of his mother who had happened to be Sahar.

All of that was in the past for Ziva and her family. Director Vance had gotten a flight to Paris for Ziva so that she could reunite with her family. Thanks to Gibbs and the others, Ziva was able to be with Tony and Tali, but of course that also meant the loss of a good friend and former colleague. As Ziva stood in the doorway of her daughter's bedroom as the new day began. Ever since she had returned to her family all those years ago, Ziva would make a point of looking on Tali. It was her way of making up for the time that she had missed. This particular time of watching her daughter sleep was a bit different. The day that was in its infancy happened to be the thirteenth birthday of beautiful child in the bed. Leading up to Tali's birthday, both Tony and Ziva had a hard time fathoming that they had a teenage daughter now. For Ziva, Tali was still the toddler that she had named after her late sister, a sleeping toddler that she had handed over to her late friend; Adam. There was no way that Tali was a teenager.

_Where did all those years go?_

"Tali grew up, I know its hard for me to wrap my mind around too. She maybe thirteen, but she'll always be the little girl that I met for the first time in Vance's office when Orli had her brought in."

Ziva nearly jumped out of her skin when Tony came up to her.

"Don't sneak up on me like that." Ziva said as she and Tony left their daughter's bedroom.

"You still worry about her? Tali is resilient, just like you."

"I know, Tony. But I will never stop worrying about her."

Tony nodded in response.

"We should turn in for the night, we'll have to be up in a few hours to get everything ready." Tony said.

In a few short hours, Tali would be partaking in her bat mitzvah and her parents would be throwing her a thirteenth birthday party after the bat mitzvah.

"I be there in a few minutes." Ziva said.

Once again, Tony nodded in response as he made his way to their bedroom. Ziva returned to Tali's bedroom and opened the bedroom door a bit more so she could see Tali. No matter how many times she checked in on Tali, Ziva would never get tired of seeing her daughter sleep. There was just something special about watching Tali sleep.

"You are my whole world, you are my everything. All that I am and all that I do is for you, my love." Ziva said is a low whisper.

It was then after Ziva had said what she did to Tali that Tali shifted around in her bed under her bedding. Tali was now facing her bedroom door and Ziva.

"Happy Birthday, my sweet daughter. I am so proud of the person that you have become and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for you."

Tali stirred again. "Is that you, Ima?"

"Yes it is, Happy Birthday."

**Tali:**

"Thank you, Ima." Tali said.

"See you in the morning."

As Ziva left her daughter's bedroom, Tali tried her best to fall back asleep. She knew that she would have a busy day ahead of her in few hours, but now that she was awake; Tali was too excited about her birthday. Her parents had invited everyone that matter to them to her impending bat mitzvah and the party that would follow. So basically they had invited Gibbs and everyone from NCIS, they were her family after all. Tali also invited some friends to her party, one of which was a boy from her school that she fancied for a while now. Bryce Petit, had piqued Tali's interest a number of months ago just before their school let out for a break. There were very few people outside of Tali's small group of friends that she was crushing on Bryce.

Thankfully; Abby, Bishop and Jack had encourage Tali to reach out to Bryce and take a chance. Abby had reminded Tali that both of her parents were risk takers from time to time, so it was in Tali's blood so to speak. So Tali, invited her friends and the boy she liked. Now Tali had thought that neither of her parents knew that she liked a boy. But that wasn't necessarily the case. What Tali didn't know was that both of her parents suspected that she was interested in a boy, Tony and Ziva had been federal agents at one time. Tali had grown up knowing the ladies of NCIS always knew what was happening before the guys of NCIS did. So even though she wasn't an agent anymore, Ziva had still the ability to sense what was going on between two people. That was the one thing that Tali had always kept in mind when it came to Bryce. Of course as Tali tried to fall back to sleep, she started to worry about having Bryce at the party.

_What if they already know?_

_ What if only one of them knows?_

_ What is Ima going to do if she knows that I like Bryce and he's at the party? Ima was in the Israeli army and was apart of Mossad before she came to NCIS._

_ Then there's Aba, he doesn't have all the same training as Ima, but he could still scare the crap out of Bryce._

To say that Tali's mind was racing was a complete understatement. But eventually, Tali was able to fall asleep. Hours after she had fallen asleep again, it was time to wake up. No time was wasted after Tali got up. After springing out of bed, Tali made her way into the bathroom to start getting ready for the busy day ahead of her. As Tali got the shower going in her bathroom, she heard movement coming from her parents' bedroom. Tali first thought that it was her dad, that had been up; but then again it was a rare occurrence that her father woke up before her mother. It was long after the commotion from Tony and Ziva's room had first started that Tali realized who had gotten up first out of her parents. As Tali used the blow dryer on her hair after her shower, she could smell the aroma of coffee emanating from the kitchen. That usually meant that her dad was up now and that he was getting the coffee ready for the three of Tali was ready finally she joined her parents in the kitchen for some coffee and a quick bite for breakfast.

"Are you ready for today, Tali?" Tony asked.

"As ready as I can be, Aba."

"You look beautiful in that dress." Ziva said.

"Thank you, Ima. I am glad that I chose it when we went shopping the other day."

When it came to the bat mitzvah ceremony; Tony, Ziva and Tali were meeting their NCIS family and Grandpa Tony at the temple. Abby had flown in from England for the bat mitzvah and party. Once everyone was together, they all had picked up where they had left off the last time they were together. And that's what Tali loved the most of all.

**Tony:**

After the bat mitzvah, everyone gathered for Tali's party. At one point; Tony watched from a distance as his father came up besides Gibbs. Tony saw the smile come to Gibbs' face as he shook hands with Senior. Even to this day, Tony always kept a watchful and wary eye on Senior. One just never knew what Senior had up his sleeves.

"It seems like it was just yesterday that Junior found out about Tali, Gibbs. And now she's a teenager. I wish my son all the best with that." Senior said with a bit of gravitas in his voice.

Gibbs laughed as Tony moved in a bit closer to where his father and surrogate/work father were standing so he could eavesdrop a bit better.

"We all do, Chief, we all do. Tony will make it through Tali's teenage years…with Ziva's help of course."

It was then that Tony's attention had shifted over to his daughter. Even though Tony had known it since he had first met Tali in Director Vance's office all those years ago, the fact that Tali was Ziva's mini me came into focus especially with Tali standing amongst a small group of boys that were her age or a bit older.

"Breathe Tony, she's fine." Ziva said as she came up to him from behind.

It was after Tony had realized that Ziva was behind him and he was able to get his heartbeat back to a normal pace that he was able to put a sentence together in response.

"I told you never to do that…"

Ziva smiled as she remembered back to when she first joined Gibbs' team as a liaison between NCIS and Mossad following the Kate and Ari's respective deaths.

"I couldn't help myself, Tony. I promise it won't happen again."

"That's what you said the last time."

As her parents watched from across the room and the boys that were around her chatted away, Tali scanned the room. She was looking to see if her extended family enjoying themselves while she was checking to see if Bryce was at the party or not.

"What is she doing? Who is she looking for? All of her guests are here already." Tony asked.

"Relax, Tony; Tali is just looking for someone special."

"Who?"

At this point; Abby, Bishop and Jack had joined Tony and Ziva. It was clear to the women what was going on with Tali.

"Who is Tali looking for?" Tony pressed.

The ladies were keeping quiet. Abby, Bishop and Jack weren't about to betray Tali's trust. Ziva wasn't going to give away what she knew either.

"She's waiting for a boy, isn't she."

The ladies remained silent as they watched Tali spot Bryce on the other side of the room by the was all the confirmation that Tony needed. As Ziva and the ladies went to rejoin everyone else at the party, Tony stood frozen in place as he protectively watched his daughter. Tony didn't even notice or hear his father when his father came up to him and tried to give him a beer.

"Here son, you're going to need this." Senior said.

Tony snapped out of his reverie and took the drink from his father.

"Thanks Dad."

After that the party continued and Tony remained in protective Dad mode until all the teenage boys, Bryce included.


End file.
